What is crime?

Crime is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as, "an act [or omission] punishable by law, as being forbidden by statute or injurious to the public welfare". Literally, this includes all acts and omissions, though it is more commonly used in reference to more serious offences.

What is the difference between a crime and offence?

For statistical purposes, contraventions of Scottish criminal law are similarly divided into crimes and offences. While the term “crime” is generally used for more serious criminal acts; less serious infringements are termed "offences". The distinction between crimes and offences is made only for working purposes and the “seriousness” of the offence is generally related to the maximum sentence that can be imposed. The Scottish Executive uses a detailed classification of crimes and offences, which contains about 360 codes, to collect criminal statistics (Scottish Executive, April 2002).

It is important to note that crime laws are neither fixed nor permanent, and may be changed by many different social pressures.

Why are you only publishing crime and offence statistics?

Strathclyde Police is the first Scottish police force to allow public access to crime data interactively via the internet. Once we are confident about the stability of the system, further data may be made available. These additional data may include: stop and search, road crashes and domestic abuse incidents.

In the meantime crime overviews and performance reports submitted to Strathclyde Joint Police Board are available from elsewhere on the Strathclyde Police web site.

We also publish a quarterly report in respect of racist and homophobic incidents.

Where can I find crime data for the rest of Scotland?

The Scottish Executive publishes recorded crime statistics on an annual basis. Links to the most recent publications can be found in the "related web sites" area.

Why do some crimes and offences show large increases between 2003/04 and 2004/05?

The Scottish Crime Recording Standard (SCRS) was introduced throughout all Scottish Police Forces on 1 April 2004, the main aim of which was to provide an ethical, victim orientated approach that serves the needs of communities and ensures uniformity in crime recording standards throughout Scotland. The principles of the Standard are that if there is supporting evidence that on the "balance of probability" a crime has occurred, then it will be recorded as such. In practice, if a victim perceives that a crime has been committed it will be recorded unless there is evidence to the contrary. A crime report will be recorded in all instances where the circumstances reported amount to a crime as defined by Scots Law and there is no credible evidence to the contrary.

The introduction of SCRS had a particular impact on the recording of vandalism/ fire-raising, petty assault, theft and breach of the peace.